I'll move backwards through that sentence. "Worst" because it hit hard on issues of loss and absence, and how that resonates through one's entire life. Best - for the same reason.
And because it was superbly written.
I met Tim Gautreaux a few weeks ago when he was down here at the Alabama Booksmith for a signing. It was the second time we'd met, although I doubt he remembers the first, which was about 11 years ago or so, at a conference Image put on in Jackson on faith and the arts, naturally.
(Speaking of the Alabama Booksmith, I had the pleasure of meeting writer, editor and former Beliefnet blogger herself, now editor of In Character - Charlotte Hays - there last week - she was there with her co-author of Someday You'll Thank Me for This: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Being a "Perfect" Mother - which is hilarious. It was great to meet Charlotte!)
Anne Patchett was there in Jackson, too, reading and speaking, as were Lucinda Williams and her father Miller, a poet. That latter event, a reading/singing performance was simply magical. I remember so clearly one of them describing Miller Williams' succint words to his daughter
after hearing the song, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road:" - I'm sorry. I am pretty sure she assured him that it wasn't that autobiographical.
Also met the Wolfes, of course - Gregory and Susanna.
And Tim Gautreaux. He did a reading of his fantastic story "Good For the Soul," answered questions, and then afterwards, sat down for a brief interview with me. From a piece I wrote about him for OSV:
His stories concern people who've messed up, usually because they've shirked on their obligations to the children they've borne, the spouses they've wed, as well as their own best selves. Many of these, by the way, are parents. Gautreux's stories are filled with grandparents saddled with the raising of their errant children's children, picking up pieces and cleaning up messes.
But just as Original Sin isn't the end of the human story, Gautreux's stories don't leave us hanging in a New Yorker state of nihilistic ennui. In Tim Gautreux's world, every character lives and breathes in air as thick with hope as it is with humidity and swampy mildew.
It's a hope that's always there for the taking, once the character opens his eyes enough to see it, and its source is simple: sacrifice and the gift of self.
In "Resistance," an elderly widower observes the quiet pain of a young neighbor girl living with an alcoholic father and ineffectual mother. The child has a science project due, but no one will help her. Risking (and eventually receiving) her father's rage, the old man steps in to work with her.
"The Bug Man" moves from house to house, exterminating pests, and is inspired to encourage two of his customers to meet each other. When the relationship takes an unexpected, seemingly tragic turn, the exterminator's offer of help is rebuffed and he loses a customer, to boot. The question remains, though, until the very end of the story, if his offer was truly in vain.
"Good for the Soul," is an intricately plotted work about a priest who drives to a sick call on a night when he's had one brandy too many. Father Ledet has questions to answer for from all sides: the parishoner he'd gone to anoint, the woman (also a parishioner) he collides with on the way, the police, and of course himself. The story, full of pain, humor and grace, asks us to consider the painful gift we give when we take up another's burden.
It's hard to summarize these fine, earthy, honest and often quite humorous stories fairly, for so much of their power derives from plotting, and we wouldn't want to spoil the reading experience by revealing too much. Just know that Tim Gautreux's characters are just like the rest of us: they mess up, but then God, working through the solid stuff of life, presents them with moments in which the possibility for something better is revealed. And even though we know it's going to hurt to say yes, the sorry consequences of our past mistakes, echoing deep behind the raucous serenade of tree frogs on lonely nights, remind us that it's got to be better than saying no.
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